BA FLIGHT 149 SADDAM'S TRUE TERROR

THE ‘SWIMMING POOL HOSTAGES’ SPENT MONTHS LIVING IN FEAR AND ARE STILL FIGHTING FOR THE TRUTH TO BE REVEALED

- Kylie Walters

They spent five months being held as prisoners by the Iraqi regime in 1990. But to many, the 385 passengers and crew of British Airways flight 149 don’t even have the right to claim they were held captive after being dubbed the “swimming pool hostages” and “guestages” of brutal dictator Saddam Hussein.

The plane was on its way to Malaysia from Britain when it stopped to refuel in Kuwait City in the early hours of August 2. There, the occupants were captured by Iraqi troops who had overrun the city after Hussein ordered the military invasion of the neighboring country.

The captives were later moved to camps around Kuwait and Iraq to be used as human shields to discourage coalition forces (including Australia, the US and Britain) from bombing Hussein’s forces. “The hostages have long been denied their recognition for the real horror they endured,” Stephen Davis, who has written a book about the fateful flight and alleged cover-up that followed, tells WHO. “[The public was told] they were on a nice holiday in a luxury hotel sipping cocktails by the pool, which was the case for two or three days while the Iraqis figured out what to do with them. But after that, their lives were sheer terror,” he explains.